Mehdi Lebouachera
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/ 16 May 2007

‘We are Palestinian, we are women, we are gay’

Battling against a deeply patriarchal society, Arab Israeli and Palestinian lesbian women are uniting to break the taboo of homosexuality and politicise the right to be female and gay. ”We are Palestinian, we are women and we are gay,” is the slogan coined by Aswat, the association campaigning for lesbian Arabs to be accepted in Israeli and Palestinian society.

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/ 24 April 2006

Gaza hospital fights for life after international aid cuts

In the al-Shifa hospital, the walls are decrepit and dirty. The elevators are broken. It is a sign of the times in Gaza City, brought to its knees by the international community’s refusal to do business with a Hamas-led government. ”If this continues, the majority of our services will cease to operate in two weeks’ time,” said Dr Jumaa al-Saqqa, the spokesperson at the impoverished Gaza Strip’s main hospital.

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/ 23 October 2005

The risks of putting Saddam on trial

Judges, prosecutors, attorneys, even law clerks and accountants involved in cases linked to Saddam Hussein’s decades of rule in Iraq live in constant fear of being targeted for death. Last week’s murder of Saadoun Janabi, attorney for one of Saddam’s seven co-defendants, points to the delicate issue of protecting the hundreds of people involved in the case.

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/ 23 September 2005

Bus bombed in Baghdad

Six Iraqi civilians were killed and 10 wounded on Friday in a bomb blast on a public bus in Baghdad as supporters and opponents of the draft Constitution started in earnest to campaign ahead of the October 15 referendum. United States President George Bush has warned that Iraq should brace for more violence in the next three weeks.